


When the Road Bends

by waltzforanight



Category: due South
Genre: F/M, Gift Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-04
Updated: 2009-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-05 12:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waltzforanight/pseuds/waltzforanight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all you need a good whack on the head, literal or otherwise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Road Bends

**Author's Note:**

> Written for primroseburrows as part of ds_con_envy, from the prompt _I'm afraid that I'll be taken, abandoned, forsaken, in her cold coffee eyes_. Prompt and title are both from the Paul Simon song "She Moves On". Thanks to asyouleft for beta'ing!

When Fraser first regains consciousness after the freak salamander incident, his second thought is of standing on the roof of a train as it speeds across the country and the deafening _clunk, clunk, cla-clunk_ of the wheels gliding over the tracks. More importantly, he thinks about the woman in his arms that day and feels a sense of longing so strong he thinks his heart might actually be aching.

(His first thought is that being attacked by a salamander is perhaps the only thing more embarrassing than being hit with an otter, and that he is in for some truly merciless teasing from his Rays. It has been seven years since he worked with either of them, and they seem to enjoy teasing him more and more as the years pass. Fraser takes comfort in the fact that he may be a prime candidate for their good natured ribbing in regards to his injuries, but at least he is not bald, as is Ray Vecchio's case, nor is he losing a battle with 'beer belly', as is Ray Kowalski's case.)

A nurse bustles into the room and tries to make small talk. She is polite and friendly, as are all of the hospital staff in Whitehorse, but he can't bring himself to engage her much in conversation and she leaves quickly. There is a small window to his right that offers a view of trees, trees and more trees. The sun sets outside the window and still he thinks about that day on the train. The memory is hazy, something he attributes to both age and the morphine drip stuck in his arm, but he remembers certain details with extreme clarity.

A cabin full of harmonizing Mounties, then staring up at Buck Frobisher through a toilet bowl. How it felt to stand on the train, to feel the metal vibrate beneath his feet as the wind blew roughly all around him. Falling _off_ of the train he remembers with a terrifying thrill, though he is unable to recall how he got back on. But what he thinks about most is Meg. The way she looked, stunning in her dress reds, her hair whipping into her face. He spends a million minutes recalling her taste and her scent. In the near decade since that day, he has never found anything remotely close to the delight of either one.

The drugs the nurses administer cause him to doze frequently. In his dreams, Fraser is trekking across the wilds of the Yukon with Dief by his side. The world is white as far as he can see. As he walks, Fraser thinks about what his life would be like now if he and Meg had taken a chance then. It would have been highly inappropriate, he knows, but he can't help feel that he - that _they_ missed out on so much by putting duty and circumstance first.

Soon his thoughts turn to the present, or rather the near future and what he will do when he leaves the hospital in a few short days. His job is here in Whitehorse, as is Dief, his home and the vast majority of his social circle. He is grateful for all that he has but for the first time Fraser is beginning to think that it just isn't enough.

He continues to walk and begins to see people he met during his years in Chicago. They appear and disappear without warning, stay for indeterminate amounts of time. Fraser remembers them all: Elaine Besbriss, Sandor, Mr Mustafi, the woman who delivered the mail to his apartment on Racine, Ray Vecchio's mother. He tells them all about the train, about Meg, and he asks them all: where do I go from here? None of them are able to help him, and he thinks that maybe this is something he needs to decide for himself.

Fraser sits on a fallen log to rest and to think. He watches as Dief chases a squirrel, or perhaps vice versa, in a manner highly unbecoming of a wolf. Minutes pass, or maybe it's hours or days, and he begins to wonder if he's asking the right question after all. He can't imagine how long he's been sitting there when his father appears next to him on the log and asks, "Why are you here, son?"

"I feel lost," he replies. "I'm afraid that I'll be taken, abandoned, forsaken in her cold coffee eyes." When the expected snide comment about his flowery prose doesn't come, Fraser turns towards the sound of his father's voice and finds... Meg. He feels his heart leap to his throat, can't breathe for what feels like days. She is beautiful as always and a smile is tugging at the corner of her mouth as she watches him stare.

Fraser's brain is whirling. There are a million things he wants to say to her and a million more he wants to ask. He has no idea where to start and what finally comes out is, "It's been so long. How can I be sure you still want me?"

"You can never be sure, Fraser," she tells him. "But what do you have to lose?"

With that, she is gone. Fraser awakes with a start feeling completely lucid for the first time in years. There is a brilliant grin that he can't seem to keep off his face and he finds himself humming a cheerful tune with startling frequency. When the nurse next comes in to check up on him, she asks if there's anything she can get for him, and he requests a plane ticket to Ottawa at the earliest available opportunity.


End file.
